In the run-up to the general election, the Labour Party has sent all its candidates 'letter templates' which must be used when writing to target voters. Each is addressed to a different type of voter identified by the apparatchiks at Millbank as vital to winning the election. They are:

MRS MORTGAGE

A modified form of the famous Worcester woman, Mrs Mortgage has been identified by Labour as the Middle England voter they must woo. Married, with a three-bedroom house in the Midlands, she worries about interest rate rises and what they will do to her weekly household budget. She abandoned the Tories after interest rates hit 15 per cent, decided on Labour but is now not so sure.

The voter who actually prefers the Liberal Democrats but will be willing to vote Labour to keep the Tories out. Could be the saviour in tens of marginal Labour-held seats where the Lib Dems are in third place. Needs to be told about the disaster that the Tories were and convinced that a vote for the Lib Dems is a wasted vote.

Labour's Holy Grail, the voter who switched to Labour at the last election but does not hold her convictions deeply. A close relative of Mrs Mortgage, she would like to vote Labour again but is worried that they have failed on crime and that public services aren't getting any better. Needs to be convinced that the statement 'all politicians are the same' is untrue.

Is impressed by: toughness, private enterprise, Jack Straw

Is unimpressed by: unions, any form of 'tax credit', helping single mothers